(Columbia, SC) – House Assistant Democratic Leader and South Carolina Congressman James E. Clyburn sent today the following letter and attachments to his fellow members of the South Carolina Congressional Delegation:

Dear South Carolina Colleague,

I am writing you on behalf of the economic competitiveness of our state and our working people and asking you to join me in supporting the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.  As you know, exports play a major role in our state’s economy, constituting nearly 15 percent of Gross Domestic Product.  Recent growth in South Carolina exports has been driven largely by the Boeing Company, which has created more than 6,000 jobs (and counting) in North Charleston and many more at suppliers throughout the state.  To ensure that their exports are competitive in the global market, Boeing and many other South Carolina companies rely on loans, guarantees, and export-credit insurance from the Export Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank).  Over the past 18 months, the Ex-Im Bank has supported nearly $700 million in South Carolina export sales by 29 companies, including 18 small businesses.  I have enclosed a list of those businesses.  The Ex-Im Bank provides this support at no cost to the taxpayer.  It actually turns a small profit, which reduces the deficit.

With the Ex-Im Bank’s authorization set to expire in September, South Carolina jobs will be at risk unless Congress acts to reauthorize it.  Earlier this month the South Carolina Legislature enacted the enclosed resolution urging Congress to do so.  Any argument that the Ex-Im Bank is unnecessary ignores the fact that foreign governments will continue to support their companies in similar ways.  If Congress lets the Ex-Im Bank die, Boeing and other South Carolina companies would find themselves at a competitive disadvantage, and our working people would suffer grievous harm.  Regardless of what our ideological predilections dictate should happen in a perfect world, we must take the world as we find it and not abandon South Carolina jobs to the whims of partisan politics.

I ask that you join me in calling on Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Reid to take up reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank and bring it to a vote as soon as possible.  If Congress fails to act on behalf of America’s economic competitiveness against our global rivals, working South Carolinians will directly bear the burden of that failure.  We must not allow that to happen.

With best regards, I am

Sincerely,

James E. Clyburn
Member of Congress